Well the current crop of holidays are passing us by and for once, it hasn't been the deep hole of depression this time of the year usually brings me. I'm not mr super happy either, but I've been feeling fine as a whole. This year I gave quite a bit, not as much as I would have liked too, but good amount none the less. The last month had been good for me concerning all the crap I dropped on ebay and the continuation of unemployment too. I also spent part of the last month digitally copying most of my middle sister's family photo collection, so I was able to make new prints for some of the family from them and also made quite a number of other prints from what I had shot of them this last year. One of the things I had hoped to do was to make large number of prints for friends, but honestly couldn't really find the time to wade threw all my photos from the last year and see what was printable. Maybe next year? My other big give, was also a receive of sorts.
Earlier this week I was checking the photo section of the local craiglists when I spied a listing for not one, but two Kowa medium format camera's and 4 lenses. Now for a number of years I had wanted a Kowa and had actively looked for one, but found my Mamiya M645 first and settled on it. Anyway, the price for the pair and lenses was stupid low, so I dropped the guy an email asking if he'd part with em for well, even lower. I got a reply back the next day he'd take offer if no one else was willing to pay the amount he wanted for them after a day or two. Fast forward to the 23rd and an email back saying they were mine. Of course I don't need two camera's so after picking them both up on the 24th I shot a roll on one of them to make sure it worked and then took a quick trip across town and gave that away to a friend of mine as an Xmass present (He's been borrowing medium format camera's or using a Holga off an on for the last two years when he needs to do portraiture). Anyway, they both have found good homes!
Happy New Years folks!
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Grade Inflation
So I passed my capstone class. I actually passed it with flying colors and perfect score. In all honesty, I don't deserve it. I think maybe a A- or B+ for the Capstone itself, presentation was solid B and my participation was another solid B. How I pulled off an A+ is beyond me and reading my professors feedback was useless.
Per proff smith concerning my presentation: "Very nice job, Jeff. You had obviously spent a lot of time preparing this, and it showed. I liked your use of notes throughout, which was efficient and unobtrusive. You gave a very interesting picture of your development in the program and what you are now prepared to do. You presented your artifacts well and made good connections between theory and practice. Well done." - in reality I wrote it up two days before the presentation and then rewrote it in class based on the other presentation that were being given. I only shared two of my outcomes, but was fairly complete on them both. I was well under the 10 minutes max time too. I can say that I sat through at least 5-9 presentations that were worse then mine, about 10 that were in the same ball park and another 10 that were much better.
Per proff smith concerning my actualy portfolio: "This really does look good, Jeff. I like all the quirky little pictures that you can miss if you’re not paying attention. The content is solid, and the pictures add a little flip for those on the lookout, but they’re never intrusive. Nice job." No shit, I wrote up 3x the amount that the average person did for this assignment because this dumbass did such a poor job describing what was expected on this stupid ass assignment. I'm perplexed for not being knocked down on this assignment for typos (I always have them being dyslexic).
http://filmphotoarchivist.net/Capstone01.html
Honeslty I'm glad it's over. I'm hitting the gym daily to deal with all the weight gain I've added in the last year. Should take me quite a while to get back into shape again. Ugh.
Per proff smith concerning my presentation: "Very nice job, Jeff. You had obviously spent a lot of time preparing this, and it showed. I liked your use of notes throughout, which was efficient and unobtrusive. You gave a very interesting picture of your development in the program and what you are now prepared to do. You presented your artifacts well and made good connections between theory and practice. Well done." - in reality I wrote it up two days before the presentation and then rewrote it in class based on the other presentation that were being given. I only shared two of my outcomes, but was fairly complete on them both. I was well under the 10 minutes max time too. I can say that I sat through at least 5-9 presentations that were worse then mine, about 10 that were in the same ball park and another 10 that were much better.
Per proff smith concerning my actualy portfolio: "This really does look good, Jeff. I like all the quirky little pictures that you can miss if you’re not paying attention. The content is solid, and the pictures add a little flip for those on the lookout, but they’re never intrusive. Nice job." No shit, I wrote up 3x the amount that the average person did for this assignment because this dumbass did such a poor job describing what was expected on this stupid ass assignment. I'm perplexed for not being knocked down on this assignment for typos (I always have them being dyslexic).
http://filmphotoarchivist.net/Capstone01.html
Honeslty I'm glad it's over. I'm hitting the gym daily to deal with all the weight gain I've added in the last year. Should take me quite a while to get back into shape again. Ugh.
Monday, December 13, 2010
Boot straps
So my unemployment ended last week and I like many others are waiting at this point. I've exhausted my main benefits, but should be eligible for an extension at this point. And by eligible I mean the current congressional broo ha ha needs to be completed. Oddly enough, I'm fine for the moment. I've been saving for the last couple of months and with the help of ebay have been able to put some money aside for this. I should also be able to afford xmass without it sitting on my credit cards. I'm super lucky. Most folks in my position are not. I do hope that for for these holidays, that they survive all of this.
Happy Holidays folks!
Happy Holidays folks!
Monday, December 6, 2010
Tis the Season . . .
December is upon us again and like many, this time of the year I tend either to be sick, depressed on some occasions, sick and depressed. I've been this way most of my life this time of the year between Thanksgiving and the new year. This year, lots going on, but not enough going on either. (note, this is long and full of self righteous drivel)
This year has been a duzy of course, having lost my job just over a year ago. I've never been unemployed this long in my life. I can't see the end of the tunnel too well concerning work, and as depressing as this is, I still have it much better then most folks. I have friends who have been unemployed for more then 2 years now. The tunnel is most respects has closed and I can't fanthum how they are handling it. Yet, it still depresses me.
Grad school is technically done too. I've spent the last year taking classes and really wondering if this is what I should be doing. Actually in theory it was the best thing I could do. I remember just over a year ago deeply hoping to be laid off so I could more easily finish school. I think I waned grad school to liberate me from where I was. It hasn't. For instance I spent the last three months doing a practicum at a local art school library working with a former classmate of mine. She's been working there for the last year and half on a part time basis, and they still won't make her full time. I worked my ass off knowing their was no way I'd have a chance to getting hired on. Now add two more classes and this last semester has been fully stressed out event for me. My neck has been stiff and hurting most of that time from the stress and burn out. I stopped hitting the gym as I couldn't always find the time and then easily wouldn't make the time to go. My pressure based eating hasn't been easy either and of course I've ballooned in weight too. Much of normal clothing isn't fitting too well either. ugh.
Anyway, I started back at the gym last week at least. I've mostly been hitting the walking machine to get my muscles working again. I tried using the stair climber, but I nearly blew my knee out on it. I'll wait a another week or two before hitting it. I started swimming again too (by start I mean, literally just yesterday). I have a nice big hole to get myself out of concerning my health right now too.
What else, I have a birthday coming up in a couple of days. No thanks, I'd almost prefer to skip it this year. I think I've told the family no celebration for me. I blew off going out to a combined December birthday party on Friday too. Again no thanks. This depression makes my social skills nearly non-existent. The only cure for this is working on my social skills, but most of the time I either don't want to discuss or if I do, it's toward more depressing topics. Both make me feel like dead weight most of the time where I force myself to be social. Most folks pick up on this quickly too, and I can tell some of are avoiding me because of it. I don't blame em. I rarely find myself that amusing, fun or even informative to be around most for more then an hour at a time.
Anyway, the last three months has been killer on my psychy. I've been irritable and irritated to no end. For one class it's been killer on me since the proff is complete shit head who has yet to post any grades for the class. I have no idea what so ever how I've been doing in it either. Emails with him have not answered most of my questions, so I tried planning for the worst and did about 3x the amount of work I would normally have done (and would note, 3x what the rest of the class has done as far as our major assignment). I also had to travel to Denver for this class and give a presentation, I over wrote it and rewrote it in class as I watched everyone else do their presentation. I cut about 60% out so I wasn't reading from a script either. Again no grade here, no idea how well I've done or even if I'm going to pass. I know I will, but fucker should have posted grades on at least the major assignment weeks ago, or at least presentation grades, since it's been 2-3 weeks since we did the fucking thing.
Anyway, I'm bored as shit now. I'm in my last week of unemployment under the current first extension too. in some ways it was nice to hear of the extension passing. Though I had prepared for this and put money away, I wished Obama had gone to the matt with the Republicans on this and taxes. Fuckers need to learn what happens when you don't compromise on this stuff if you ask me. SO it looks like I have another 6 months of unemployment possibly coming to me. I'd much rather have a job.
Anyway this is all for now. Happy Holidays.
This year has been a duzy of course, having lost my job just over a year ago. I've never been unemployed this long in my life. I can't see the end of the tunnel too well concerning work, and as depressing as this is, I still have it much better then most folks. I have friends who have been unemployed for more then 2 years now. The tunnel is most respects has closed and I can't fanthum how they are handling it. Yet, it still depresses me.
Grad school is technically done too. I've spent the last year taking classes and really wondering if this is what I should be doing. Actually in theory it was the best thing I could do. I remember just over a year ago deeply hoping to be laid off so I could more easily finish school. I think I waned grad school to liberate me from where I was. It hasn't. For instance I spent the last three months doing a practicum at a local art school library working with a former classmate of mine. She's been working there for the last year and half on a part time basis, and they still won't make her full time. I worked my ass off knowing their was no way I'd have a chance to getting hired on. Now add two more classes and this last semester has been fully stressed out event for me. My neck has been stiff and hurting most of that time from the stress and burn out. I stopped hitting the gym as I couldn't always find the time and then easily wouldn't make the time to go. My pressure based eating hasn't been easy either and of course I've ballooned in weight too. Much of normal clothing isn't fitting too well either. ugh.
Anyway, I started back at the gym last week at least. I've mostly been hitting the walking machine to get my muscles working again. I tried using the stair climber, but I nearly blew my knee out on it. I'll wait a another week or two before hitting it. I started swimming again too (by start I mean, literally just yesterday). I have a nice big hole to get myself out of concerning my health right now too.
What else, I have a birthday coming up in a couple of days. No thanks, I'd almost prefer to skip it this year. I think I've told the family no celebration for me. I blew off going out to a combined December birthday party on Friday too. Again no thanks. This depression makes my social skills nearly non-existent. The only cure for this is working on my social skills, but most of the time I either don't want to discuss or if I do, it's toward more depressing topics. Both make me feel like dead weight most of the time where I force myself to be social. Most folks pick up on this quickly too, and I can tell some of are avoiding me because of it. I don't blame em. I rarely find myself that amusing, fun or even informative to be around most for more then an hour at a time.
Anyway, the last three months has been killer on my psychy. I've been irritable and irritated to no end. For one class it's been killer on me since the proff is complete shit head who has yet to post any grades for the class. I have no idea what so ever how I've been doing in it either. Emails with him have not answered most of my questions, so I tried planning for the worst and did about 3x the amount of work I would normally have done (and would note, 3x what the rest of the class has done as far as our major assignment). I also had to travel to Denver for this class and give a presentation, I over wrote it and rewrote it in class as I watched everyone else do their presentation. I cut about 60% out so I wasn't reading from a script either. Again no grade here, no idea how well I've done or even if I'm going to pass. I know I will, but fucker should have posted grades on at least the major assignment weeks ago, or at least presentation grades, since it's been 2-3 weeks since we did the fucking thing.
Anyway, I'm bored as shit now. I'm in my last week of unemployment under the current first extension too. in some ways it was nice to hear of the extension passing. Though I had prepared for this and put money away, I wished Obama had gone to the matt with the Republicans on this and taxes. Fuckers need to learn what happens when you don't compromise on this stuff if you ask me. SO it looks like I have another 6 months of unemployment possibly coming to me. I'd much rather have a job.
Anyway this is all for now. Happy Holidays.
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